dMyers_LMF

//Learning Motivation and Fun//
 I was interested in looking at factors (interacting with peers, challenge, fantasy/role-playing, subject area relevance and sensory richness) that were described as highly involved in the learning, motivation & fun stories of school-aged learners (aged 2 – 19) and if there were any differences between gender and age range. The data I evaluated included 56 participants, 31 female, and 25 male. Only 20% were younger than 10 years old, the remaining 80% were between the ages of 10 and 19. Following are five generalizations I have made based on this analysis:


 * 1) ****Most fun and motivating learning events experienced by school-aged kids do not involve working as individuals, but rather as part of a group with a high level of interaction with other learners.** In one example, Torrey worked with a team to design a car for her high school physics class, and then competed against other teams at the end of the project. Another interesting example was Brian - who told a story about learning to play in a marching drum ensemble. The instructor lead drills where the group alternated between playing all in unison and as individuals based on random selection, keeping consistent time throughout the process. Over half of all respondents, evenly split between genders, described learning experiences with a high level of interaction with other learners. In many cases, they were competing with peers, and in others, they were cooperating with team members or the class as whole. A very small number of learners reported having memorable experiences that did not involve any other people. An interesting phenomenon with this small group, was that the individual learners in the 10-19 year-old group were exclusively male, while those younger than 10, were exclusively female.


 * 2) ****School-aged boys are slightly more likely to enjoy highly challenging experiences than girls, especially among younger children.** For example, a boy named Ryan describes an experience of learning to do tricks on a skateboard when he was eight. He takes great pride in the fact that he was the youngest kid in the group and although the experience was scary and very difficult, (even painful!) he kept trying and eventually mastered some high-level skills. Natalie describes learning to snowboard when she was seven. She seems to take pride in the fact that she was a natural and snowboarding came easily to her. A high level of challenge was described in almost half of the LMF stories of school-aged learners. The stories of 43% of girls between the ages of 10 and 19 included high-level challenges, while 50% of boys in this age group described high-level challenges. In the younger age group of 2-9, the difference was greater with 38% of the girls and 67% of the boys describing high-level challenge as an element in their story.


 * 3) ****Most fun and motivating learning events experienced by school-aged kids do not involve a high level of fantasy and role-playing.** Out of 56 stories, fantasy and role-play were a major part in only seven. All of these were in the 10-19 age group, with slightly more boys than girls. One learner named John talks about participating in a mock trial where he discovered that “walking in someone else’s shoes” is the best way for him to learn.


 * 4) ****Most fun and motivating learning events experienced by 10 to 19-year-olds involve academic subjects, and almost all of these involve a subject that is to some extent relevant to experiences or future goals.** For example, Jim had an opportunity to see historical sites first hand when his high school history teacher lead a group on a three-week trip to Europe, helping him to put his book knowledge on history and art into a real-world context. Out of 45 kids in this age group, 67% described learning an academic subject. Of those, only two talked about a subject that was not relevant to their experiences or goals. Only 36% of kids younger than 10 described learning events of an academic nature. In either age group, there does not appear to be a significant difference between genders.


 * 5) ****Most fun and motivating learning events experienced by school-aged kids involve rich sensory experiences, especially being in an environment other than the classroom.** However, a small percentage of these sensory experiences are drawn from audio, visual or tactile elements used in the classroom. 57% of all school-aged respondents described an event that included a rich sensory experience. The stories of males were slightly more likely to include these experiences, as were the stories of those younger than 10. Asuman discussed practicing English by going on a sort of scavenger hunt where her and her classmates had to find English-speakers in Istanbul and ask them questions they had prepared. Derek recalls a typing class in 6th grade where he was able to use a computer-based learning game based on “Space Invaders.”

This information will be highly relevant to the game design projects I will be working on this semester. The most surprising learning from this analysis, was the lack of fantasy and role-playing involved in these stories. This leads me to believe that while an imaginative theme can add to the engagement of the learner, it will be more important to focus on sensory richness, interaction between peers, the flow of challenge and the relevance of the topic.